November 7, 2011 10:40 am

The News Tribune is as wrong as the others who criticize and dismiss Occupy Wall Street because it does not have a “plan.” That’s not the responsibility of Occupy Wall Street.

We still live in a democracy, I think. To flourish and avoid stagnation, or worse, a democracy requires active participants. Active participants bring forth ideas when a necessary change is envisioned. If an idea has merit, it grows in strength among the citizens. Ideally, ideas are discussed, perhaps voted on.

Occupy Wall Street is succeeding. The national conversation is slowly beginning to change from deficit spending to social justice. Now the task is on the shoulders of two other components in a democracy: elected officials and the media.

This is where things begin to break down. Rather than becoming participants in this growing dialogue, all too many elected officials, whose job it is to come up with a “plan,” ignore and dismiss the social justice aspects of the growing voice of their constituents.

Spending critical time on whether “In God We Trust” should be the national motto ignores the conversation. The media disengage from participating in the conversation. Rather, our citizens are too often bombarded with the latest news about weddings, divorces, court proceedings of, ultimately, inconsequential celebrities.

Encourage and participate in a national, honest, civilized conversation about the consequences of social injustices.

If I were trying to make an impression on a Nation, I would never let criminals, anarchists, dopers, slobs, police-car-poopers, and open air lovers be the face of my agenda….Oops, forgot the complele and total trashing of the public area they occupy.

No, James. No, it is OWS’s responsibility to come up with a message. You see, when you invite every unwashed misanthrope to come out to your encampment weilding a picket sign with their utopian wishlist stenciled on it, you have the responsibility to organize that group into a concentrated message or else you get exactly what you have now: thousands of self-centered hippies who think that marinating in their own filth for weeks while screaming 100 different catchphrases constitutes effective change.

I agree with some of the things that some people in the OWS movement have been saying, but you’ll never see me protesting with them for two simple reasons: 1) I shower daily; and 2) OWS has no single (or even top ten) message that they are supporting, so I can’t say for certain that the things I do agree with are actually part of what the whole group supports.

If you want to make a difference, you have to come up with a platform. It doesn’t have to be one thing, but they’ve got to get those hippies together to agree on a slate of issues they’re pushing for. It can’t be that hard to get them to sit down for a meeting — they haven’t moved in a month, so it should be as simple as passing a joint around at the next drum circle and saying “Hey! Bad hygeine and incoherent whining about ‘The Man’ didn’t make a difference in the 60’s, so let’s try a new tactic… maybe talking to The Man on HIS terms.”

Being a (very stinky) thorn in the side of those of us who work for a living downtown has done a great job of getting everyone’s attention, but without a clear message coming from those demanding attention, OWS’s actions just looks like a bunch of idiot kids being too lazy to work and aged hippies trying to relive Woodstock.

It is OWS’s responsibility to clarify why they’re doing what they’re doing. If you survey 100 different OWS protestors and ask them what OWS is about, you’ll get 200 different answers. That’s not a movement. That’s not even a protest — it’s just smelly people taking up space and making noise.

Oh, and while they’re at it developing their platform, maybe they ought to develop a way to police themselves, too. Letting all comers (read anarchists) into one’s ranks dilutes one’s message. And when OWS allows those idiots to commit crimes under their banner, OWS is responsible.

This one comes from “JohnnyO” who is providing a warning to the protesters… you may be able to beat the human rats but New York City rats, as in rodents… In the words of a famous American “This war is lost…”

“Forum Post: Rat infestation at Zuccotti Park
Posted 1 minute ago on Nov. 7, 2011, 7:09 p.m. EST by JohnnyO
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

My buddy Kwame works for NYC sanitation. Rats have moved into Zuccotti Park and he says it will get worse with the cold weather. They’ll eat anything and spread disease. Time to pack it in. You may beat the banksters but not the rats.

The only conversation I hear is about how spoiled these kids have become when they grow up believing they are entitled to something for nothing, i.e. they do not have to work for something in return.

They claim to be against the fact that “all the money” is gone due to people’s greed, yet they are costing people who go to work everyday thousands of dollars to provide them support for food and water; cities to pay for police and sanitary clean-up; and eventually parks departments to restore the city parks. The greed is no less than the guy that felt he was entitled to rip off taxpayers through bookkeeping – it all costs those that work.

Go home kids, go back to school or back mooching off a family member. True social change will come when you realize you need to support yourself, get some form of an education, and build an idea, a business, something that will move America forward, not tear it apart.

The destruction you are causing today is no less a negative impact on America than the Bernie Madoff’s of yesterday.

“And on Friday, she said, a crazed squatter burst into the shop and demanded that workers fill a 10-gallon container of water.

When they refused, “he banged it on the ground and started yelling” and threatened the staff, she said.

“He said he was entitled to have it for free.” ”

I bet the store owner is most definately in the 99% and providing employment to other 99%’s… Unfortunately members of OWS are sucking the resource dry. A perfect example of having to many parasites and not enough contributers.

This little ditty comes from San Diego, California. The land of sun and surf… Seems a coffee cart owner was very supportive of the movement and the occupiers and intially provided them with free food and drink. But realizing that free really isn’t “free” someone had to pay for it, the distributer – no, the supplier – no, the coffee cart vendor – well, she did run out of “other peoples money”…. her own and so she ask the ones stuffing their puffy faces ‘can we exchange green pieces of paper for the food and drink I provide you?’

Now, who would benefit from a loud, television-friendly diversion that blames the poor economy on evil capitalists, fosters envy, and pits Americans against each other?

Given that Obama associate Van Jones was hinting about this last spring on the Ed Schultz radio show, I don’t believe there is ANY QUESTION that the administration is up to its Che Guevara tee shirts in this…

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